Improvement in dental drills



F. HICKMAN.

Dental Drills. N0,]49,03Q PatentedMarch 31,1874.

FIG. 5

WITNESSES' 'P INVENTOR:

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EEANcIs HICKMAN, on READING, PENNSYLVANIA.

IMPROVMENT IN DENTAL DRlLLS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 149,039, dated March 31, 1874; application filed July 25, 1873.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, FnANcIs HrcKMAN, of Reading, in the county of Berks, Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Dental Drills, of which the following is a specification:

This invention consists in a blowing attachment to dental drills by which ajet of air may be forced into the cavity of the tooth being operated on. The primary object is to eject the cuttings, but the jet of air serves also to keep the bit cool. A stationary nozzle is applied externally of the bit, so as to properly direct the jet of air. The air is supplied and forced by a bellows-bulb and a conductingtube. In a dental-engine or machine drill the bulb is worked automatically by a simple apparatus driven by connection with the shafting. .Warm air is preferably taken from the mouth to supply the jet 5 but the air may be heated, wholly or in part, by an electric coil enveloping a metallic portion of the air-tube.

The blowing attachment is applicable to hand-drills, as well as to dental engines or machine-drills.

Figure l is an elevation of a portion of a machine-drill having a blowing attachment applied thereto. Fig. 2 is a similar View on a larger scale, showing the blowing apparatus properand a portion of the conducting-tube of Athe attachment in longitudinal section. Fig. 3 is a transverse section at z z, Fig. l, on the same scale as Fig. 2. Fig. 4 is a longitudinal section, on the same scale, of the drillsto'ek and air-nozzle. Fig. 5 is a transverse section, on the same scale, at g/ y, Fig. l.

The blowing attachment is illustrated as applied to a dental-engine or machine drill, of which s s2 represent sections of the shafting; c, a flexible coupling uniting the same; p, a driving-pulley, and I) the bit. The outer section of shaftin g s2 constitutes the drill-stock. A nozzle, N, is formed and arranged so as to direct a jet of air upon and around the end or point of the bit b; and tube-sections T T2, united by a flexible tube-coupling, C, connect therewith. The flexible coupling C corresponds with that of the shafting. The nozzle N may be formed on the end of the outer tube-section T2, as in the illustration, or may be separate rear end of the tube is a bellows-bulb, B, and

a pair of jaws, J J 2, for working the same. The bulb may be made of vulcanized caoutchouc,

and, in the preferred form of the device, no4

valve is necessary. The jaws J J2 may be formed of a single piece of elastic sheet metal. The outer end of the movable jaw J2 is provided with a stem or projection, p2, which is engaged by the strap s3 of an eccentric, applied to one of the sections of shafting.

- Any preferred mechanical equivalent of this mechanism may be employed. The object is to work the bellows-bulb automatically by a connection with one of the moving parts of the machine-drill. A different form of blower may be employed. The bellows-bulb is represented as expanded in Figs. l and 3, and as compressed in Fig. 5.

In the apparatus, as above described, warm air is taken from the mouth of the patient to supply the jet. In order to give more heat to this air, or to warm cold airotherwise supplied, a metallic portion, T, of the air-conducting tube is enveloped by an electric heating-coil, H, of any approved construction.

The attachment is applicable to hand-drills, and as thus used may consist of a suitable nozzle and any simple blower, with or without the electric heater; and the latter may also be dispensed with in machine-drills.

The attachment operates to keep the toothcavity clear of cuttings in the most pleasant manner, and also to keep the bit cool while it 1s in use.

The following is claimed as new:

l. The combination, with the bit of a dental drill, of a nozzle for delivering a jet of air within the tooth-cavity, to clear the same and to cool the bit, this nozzle being stationary and applied externally of the bit, as herein described.

2. A blowing attachmentfor dental drills,

comprising L nozzle for receiving,` and delivering the air, zu conducting-tube, and e bellowsbulb, substantially' as herein set forth.

3. The eccentric E, straps s3, and jaws J J2, operating substantially as described, in combination with the bellows-bulb B, for Working the same from the shafting of 2L dental engine.

4. The electric heating-coil H, in combination with the air-conducting tube T T2 of a blowing attachment for dental drills, substantia-ily as herein described, for the purpose specied.

FRANCIS HICKMAN. Witnesses Oc'rAvIUs KNIGHT, WALTER ALLEN. 

